the Grow Yourself Up Podcast
a podcast to support all of us in our adult lives
Many of us did not get our needs adequately met in childhood. The devastating legacy of childhood trauma, wounding and traumatic stress lives on in our brains, our bodies, our nervous systems and our behaviour/reactions impacting the way we turn up to our lives in many ways.
We are going to unpack all of this on Grow Yourself Up. This podcast will be a companion as you journey on your own road of healing and recovery.
You will learn you are not alone. Someone has been where you are. There is hope.
We will break down shame together and learn to cultivate self compassion. There is always the possibility for change. And regardless of what has happened in our past, as adults we have to take responsibility for our own lives.
We have to tend to our pain, our sadness and our dysfunction so that we can live a life we love and shift toxic patterns for our children.
Each week we send out journal questions based around the podcast’s topic. If you would like to receive these questions, please sign up here.
Looking for a specific topic or guest? Search below:
Ep 57: Process, Self Care and Growing up in Motherhood with Suzy Reading
In this episode Cath is joined by author and coach Suzy Reading. Suzy shares about how she has grown herself up in motherhood, how grief impacted her early motherhood, how she takes care of herself and how advocating for her kids has helped her with self advocacy.
Ep 56: The Messy Imperfection of Rupture and Repair
In this episode Cath speaks about the process of rupture and repair with our children. We may imagine that this is a neat, easy process (and sometimes it is) and often it is more complex and messy.
Ep 55: Intrusions, Control and Growing Up in Motherhood with Anna Butcher
In this episode Cath is joined by Anna Butcher. We talked about Anna's journey to motherhood, how she experiences mothering and how the act of becoming a mother is an intrusion into our lives (on multiple levels).
Ep 54: Ways to Support and Resource Ourselves
Cath is a psychotherapist and so is obviously a big fan of therapy and the positive benefits arising from therapy.
Ep 53: Neediness, Choice and Growing Up in Motherhood with Mara Glatzel
In episode 53 Cath is joined by author, coach and podcast host Mara Glatzel.
This is a rich conversation centered on needs and how we can make space for them, illustrated with stories from Mara’s life. We also discuss ambition, grappling with achievement, choice and the decisions we need to make about how we actually spend our precious lives.
Ep 52: The Complex Journey of Meeting Needs
In episode 52 Cath focuses on our needs and why starting to meet/meeting them can be so complex (building on earlier episodes on this topic, listen to episodes 1-4 and 26).
Ep 51: Partner Rage, Postpartum Health and Healing in Motherhood with Molly Caro May
In episode 51 Cath was joined by author Molly Caro May. This rich and beautiful conversation covered so much ground. They touched on Molly’s memoir ‘Body Full of Stars’, talked about Molly’s postpartum health experiences, breaking cycles in motherhood, rage and self responsibility.
Ep 50: Shame, Perfectionism and Holidays
In this half century episode Cath talks about how our own shame and perfectionism (and what happens when our shame gets touched) can impact our holiday times.
Ep 49: Burnout and Parenting When Our Kids Struggle with Kendra Wilde
Cath was joined by Kendra Wilde this week. They talked all about how to keep our sanity intact in parenting when our children are struggling in some way. Kendra shared about the 'why' behind (Wild Peace for Parents) and how she was pushed to a place of burnout on her parenting journey. This conversation is loaded with self compassion and wisdom from someone who has kids in their twenties, we hope you enjoy it.
Ep 48: Understanding our Jealousy and Envy
In this episode Cath talks about two feelings - jealousy and envy - that are often seen as ‘bad’ feelings or feelings we should not admit to (because we may come across as not being ‘nice’).
Ep 47: Anxiety, Control, Letting Go and Perfectionism in our Mothering with Azalia Suhaimi
In this week's episode Cath is joined by artist and illustrator Azalia Suhaimi. Azalia shares her motherhood journey and how perfectionism, anxiety and trying to get everything right led her to burnout. Azalia reflects on the importance of letting go and getting help. The generous storytelling will help you feel less alone and that no matter what issues you are experiencing in motherhood, there is a way through.
Ep 46: Making Space For Grief
Grief is an emotion that arises in response to loss and it applies to many things apart from death.
We often need to learn how to make space for it and to allow ourselves to actually grieve, instead of denying or cutting off from our experiences.
Ep 45: Productivity, Always Being Busy and Starting to Stop (part re-release)
Productivity is revered in our society and for many of us this constant drive to produce, to be busy, to be viewed as always efficient is wired into us as part of our safety strategies.
Ep 44: Perfectionism, Baby Sleep, Breastfeeding and Rage with Hannah Clapham
In this episode Cath is joined by Hannah Clapham who runs a sleep consultancy service called Little Nest Sleep. Hannah shares about how she has grown herself up in motherhood. There is so much richness in this episode including expectations in motherhood, self blame, how perfectionism trips us up, challenges around kiddie sleep and surrender, breastfeeding, advocating for ourselves and rage and how it relates to our own childhoods.
Ep 43: The Complexity of Shifting and Breaking Cycles
Those who are working to shift toxic cycles in their own lives and in their families are called 'cycle breakers' on social media.
Ep 42: Blame, Responsibility and Co-regulation
In this episode Cath looks at the concept of blame. Blame is often something that happens a lot in dysfunctional families and, as adults, it can feel necessary to blame something or someone for issues, problems or the way life is.
Ep 41: Healing and Breaking Cycles in Parenting with Maggie Viers
In this episode Cath is joined by Occupational Therapist and Conscious Parent Coach Maggie Viers. Maggie shares her own growth and awakening in motherhood. She talks about how becoming a mother was a catalyst for her own growth and healing.
Ep 40: Self Mothering: Putting it into Practise
In this episode Cath discusses the concept of self mothering, explaining why this is such a crucial part of all our healing journey.
Ep 39: A Mother's Journey to Conscious Parenting and Parenting Teens with Yvonne Smyth
In this episode Cath is joined by Yvonne Smyth. Yvonne is a Conscious Parent Coach and a Child Advocate. She's a single mum who co-parents her boys of 12 and 13 and she lives in Northern Ireland.
Ep 38: The Scourge of Shame and Why it Matters
Shame is present in all dysfunctional families and yet it is something we don’t talk about that much.
Cath has mentioned it in multiple episodes and this episode is dedicated exclusively to shame because it is everywhere. Often operating out of our awareness and causes so much pain.
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